Page 96 of Call Sign: King
Knowing the conversation he was about to have should probably take place in the secure command center, Ryder felt a bit guilty by cheating and heading to his office in the main house instead.
Thankfully, when he’d bought The Ranch years before, he’d had Bing set up connectivity to their EVN and comms link to the home office for exactly this reason —knowing there would be days Ryder would rather not have to make the trek to their bunker deep underground every time he wanted to make a secure phone call.
Chip Marshall answered with a sharp, “Morning,” on the first ring.
“Morning. I didn’t expect to hear from you over the weekend,” Ryder admitted, yet still anxious for an update.
“The weekends are different in Israel. Sunday is the start of their work week.”
Ryder already knew that, so he clarified. “I meant I didn’t want you to work the weekend.”
“Ah, well fuck that,” Chip chuckled. “I took Maggie and the girls out for dinner and a show last night. That was enough play time for a while.”
At least Ryder understood how the man had ended up a billionaire. Chip Marshall had worked his ass off for every dollar.
“So… you mentioned Israel. Does that mean you found a contact for us to work with?”
“Sort of. I started with my contact at the Israeli Defense Department. I knew he wouldn’t have the exact connections we needed to ferret out our mystery, but he got me in touch with a long serving legislator in the Knesset, who connected me to someone else. That guy refused to confirm his title, but I’m pretty sure he was with the Sayeret Matkal forces — the group Torch’s sources in Europe suggested could help us. That guy didn’t trust me… I could tell, but he did give me the number of a new contact in Mossad and that’s where I finally hit pay dirt.
“I don’t know their real name, but he confirmed the secret group we are looking for does exist. Loosely translated, they’re called the Cold Case Squad or CCS for short. They’ve only been together for a couple years, but it sounds like they’ve had some amazing success.”
Ryder listened intently. It was tempting to get his hopes up, but he had to be realistic. They still had a long road ahead of them.
“Do they work on cases for non-Israelis?” he asked the first of many million-dollar questions.
“Not normally, but for a price, everyone can be bought,” Chip said, rather cynically.
Unfortunately, Ryder agreed with him.
Fortunately, money was something Chip Marshall had plenty of.
“Did they say they’d take the case?”
“Not officially. They have a pretty high success rate, but I get the impression that’s partly because they only take cases they think they can solve.”
“How long until we find out if they’re on board?” Ryder asked, hoping it wouldn’t take months of waiting just to be turned down.
“They’re flying into The Ranch on Wednesday.”
“Say what?” Ryder almost choked on the sip of coffee he’d taken waiting for his answer.
“I paid a nice little expedite fee. They aren’t promising anything. Just that they’ll send agents over for a meeting. They’ll want to see everything you’ve collected — photos, police reports, witness statements — everything. Don’t hold anything back. They’ll take a look through it all and let us know if they can take the case before they leave The Ranch.”
Fresh anxiety exploded in his chest. Fuck, things were moving fast.
“Ryder?” Chip asked after a minute of silence.
“Yeah. I’m here.”
“It’s not too late to cancel. Did you say anything to him yet?”
“No. I didn’t want to get his hopes up.”
Closing his eyes, Ryder forced himself to feel the panic he’d felt in those terrifying days Khloe was stolen — lost to him. He couldn’t even imagine the agony of living with those emotions for the rest of his life.
The decision was actually easier than he’d thought. “Don’t cancel. They need to come. What we’ve done hasn’t worked. We need help.”
“Even knowing the risks if they turn down the job?”
